1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to processing, storage, distribution, and interaction with electronic images, and in particular to the processing, storage, distribution, and interaction with images created or captured by mobile devices having network communications capabilities, such as smartphones.
The invention enables a user whose image-displaying device includes enhanced viewer software to use an image displayed on the image-displaying device as a portal for communication with others who have interacted with the image, including authors and facilitators of the image. Watermarking and security measures are provided to enable source and content verification of a displayed image so that user morphing or modification of imagery can be tracked to maintain stability of image-based interaction and so that malicious imagery tamper can be prevented.
The invention is implemented by a combination of at least one image creating device that includes imaging software for creating and processing an image in a way that enables both content and source verification, at least one image viewing device that includes the aforementioned enhanced viewer software, and a cloud service that supports source and content verification of the images and interactivity between imagery viewers, authors, facilitators, and/or others who have interacted with the image. The cloud service associates each picture with a record of interactions with the image, and a record containing information on users who have interacted with the image. The cloud service then uses these records to create an interactive billow. The interactive billow is an interactive entity displaying the image together with other potentially user-interesting imagery and a mechanism permitting user-interaction with other viewers of the subject imagery or viewers of the other potentially user-interesting imagery via a text, audio or video dialog box or other interactive mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
Smartphones, by virtue of their ever improving imaging capability and their powerful sharing capabilities, are generating much of the imagery seen in the world today. Because of the sheer volume of imagery being created and the fact that people with smartphones (meaning iPhones™, Android™ smartphones, and other smartphones, as well as tablets, Apple™ watches and other portable image-creating and displaying devices with network communications capabilities) are essentially everywhere all the time, the potential for this imagery to be a game changer to effective interaction between people is high.
However, it is frequently the case that when a smartphone user runs across interesting imagery on the web, the user will not know who the author is, who else may have seen it, or what others may think about it. For this reason while effective interaction between people is no doubt improved by the facile imaging of smartphones, it is far from an effector of interaction between people who are not already connected in some way. Nevertheless, it turns out that the smartphone platform is inherently the right tool to greatly expand not only the numbers of pictures that people broadcast, but also to greatly expand effective interaction between people via these pictures.
Smartphone technology has now advanced to the stage, that if smartphone imagery were protected and robustly marked as it was created, and properly serviced by a cloud system designed for the purpose, it would be possible for viewers of smartphone imagery everywhere to readily and safely interact with the authors and viewers of smartphone pictures from every source.
At present, all smartphones and all digital pictures are subject to malicious tamper. Therefore, for reliable improvement of wide people-interaction coming from smartphone imagery, much care must be taken to protect the software in the smartphone that would do the robust marking, as well as the marking itself that is placed on the imagery. Copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/971,527, filed Aug. 20, 1013 and published as U.S. Patent Publication No. 2014/0049653 on Feb. 20, 2014, discloses a system for marking images in a way that enables content and source verification, while a number of additional techniques are available to protect and verify the image-creation software and provide added security during creation, transmission, and storage of the images. The present invention provides a platform that takes human interaction with imagery one step further, by not only providing for creation, storage, and distribution of secured and therefore stabilized imagery, but for using the imagery as a platform that enables stable and trustable interaction between a viewer of the imagery and authors/facilitators, as well as other viewers, of the imagery.